NZ woman drives 185 miles while asleep

Most of us have been there. You're on a long drive, on an arrow-straight highway. You started early in the day, and now you're getting to that point that no amount of caffeine, sugar, music or other stimulants will keep you going. Your head nods once. You feel your eyelids start to droop. And then you pop back up. Falling asleep while driving is a genuinely terrifying and potentially lethal experience. If you feel yourself starting to get drowsy, do yourself and everyone else on the road a favor and pull off.

A woman in New Zealand didn't heed this sound advice. According to a story from The New Zealand Herald, the woman covered a distance of 300 kilometers (186.4 miles, or roughly the distance from New York City to Baltimore) while asleep, and somehow managed to text friends along the way. If she'd been drinking a beer, she'd have had all the bases covered for things you shouldn't do while piloting a motor vehicle.

The story takes a turn for the stupid, though, after it turns out the woman had a sleeping disorder and had taken sleeping pills ahead of the drive. Kiwi police were alerted to the issue by a friend of the woman, who was receiving garbled texts. The woman was eventually found by her cousin, slumped over the wheel at her former home. She had no memory of either driving or sending text messages. Not surprisingly, police have banned her from driving until they can obtain medical advice on her condition and decide whether she should hold a license.

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